Authority or Power Translate Into

¶ … authority or power translate into hostile behavior? We have all experienced the security line at the airport. We've all seen young people, old people, men, women and even children being talked to disrespectfully, even downright rudely, by security guards who are there to do a job that has to do with ensuring the safety of passengers. Yet, it seems -- and it is certainly a cliche -- that when you give people a little power, they will take it and run. While police officers and other law enforcement officials do have given power, we are constantly hearing on the news about law enforcement officials abusing their power. Why is this? Why does giving people power sometimes translate into hostile/abusive/violent behavior? This paper will design a study to observe everyday people with some degree of power or authority and look at if this power translates into the exhibition of more hostile behavior than those who are in non-power or non-authoritative positions.

Study Design

This study will employ descriptive research methods, specifically naturalistic observation. Naturalistic observation methods are when researchers "systematically measure and record the observable behavior of participants as it occurs in the real world, without interfering in any way" (Huffman 2007). For this study, three different locations will be the scene of the experiment where the researchers will watch real situations where there are people with power interacting with people who have less power. The first area will be the security gate at an airport; the second area will be the security check at a courthouse; and the third will be a Department of Motor Vehicles where there are security people who assist in getting people into the correct lines for whatever their needs of the DMV. The purpose of the study is to gauge the behavior of the individuals who are working with people who are perceived to have less power than they.

Biases

The only biases associated with this study is that the security personnel will know that they are being watched -- or observed -- and thus they may modify their behavior in order to appear more patient, accommodating, etc. Likewise, people who would perhaps be more difficult to deal with may alter their behavior in order to appear calmer, nicer, etc. However, the latter bias could be eliminated if they did not know that they were being observed. This holds true for the first bias as well but it would be much harder to do because of security measures that would have to be taken (especially in an airport) to observe this type of situation.

One other issue with this type of experiment, a naturalistic observation experiment, is that we will only be able to describe the behavior of the individuals that we observe; we will not be able to assess their mental processes, which is an important aspect of any psychological study (Myers 2004).